


Don't Let Go

by FealookeNandin



Series: Through Hell or Highwater [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:20:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6304150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FealookeNandin/pseuds/FealookeNandin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I can't let you in. It would get you hurt. And I just can't stand for that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Into the Room

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [What the Room Requires](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/183295) by Alydia Rackham. 



Disclaimer - Roses are red, violets are blue, I don’t own, you don’t sue  
Chapter 1 - Into the Room

 

Hermione watched Draco practically run from the Great Hall when he saw Katie Belle. Harry stood to follow, but she put her arm out to try to stop him. He plowed through anyways.   
“Harry! Stop it!” She yelled at him through the commotion of the Hall. Something in her told her that she had to follow Draco, not Harry. She had a bad feeling that Harry would do something rash and get hurt. Little did she know, she was not very far off. So Hermione pushed him back onto the bench and hurried to follow the disappearing form of Draco Malfoy.

*************************************Draco POV******************************************

He saw her. Katie Belle. She couldn’t remember, could she? No, no, she couldn’t. She couldn’t. His tie felt like it was choking him and the air around him seemed to crush his lungs so he couldn’t breathe. Draco made his way quickly out of the Great Hall, so absorbed in panic he didn’t see one brown-haired Gryffindor silently following him.  
When he got to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, Draco let himself breakdown. He pulled his sweater vest off and ripped the tie from his throat, trying to force air into his lungs. His face was turning red and he could barely hold back the tears, shoulders shaking with the effort. Something scraped behind him. Draco’s head snapped around while he yelled, “Who’s there?!” Someone stepped out from the shadows.  
“Malfoy-” the person started to say.  
“Crucio!” He yelled, but he missed the person behind him by inches. Who was - Granger. Of course it would be the Mudblood that would be the person to witness his moment of weakness. He ran from the bathroom, Granger right on his heels. Not necessarily knowing where his feet were taking him, Draco concentrated on losing Granger. But, Merlin, she was fast. He found himself at the seventh floor corridor that held the Room of Requirement. He lunged desperately at the wall, thinking, I need a safe place, I need a safe place, I need a safe place.  
At the same time, Hermione flung herself towards him, thinking, I need more time, I need more time, I need more time. The Room of Requirement closed, and they were both trapped in deafening darkness.

*****************************************************************************************

He couldn’t find his wand. Granger had crashed into him, making him drop it. There was no light, and his wandless Lumos wasn’t working. He groped around, trying to find his wand when his head cracked into something else.  
“Argh. Ow!” He whispered.  
“Great, now I’ve dropped my wand. This is just fantastic.” Who was- oh, Granger. Right, she’d blindly followed him into the Room of Requirement. And now he’d just run into her.  
“Watch it, Mudblood,” He said, “We better get out of here soon, for your sake.” He expected a biting response, but none came. Then, he saw what the object of Granger’s attention was. It was him. Standing there, under a Dark Mark in the sky, over Albus Dumbledore’s body. He watched as it slowly changed from Dumbledore, to Potter, to the Weasel, and finally, to Granger. The Other Him grinned maniacally as he pointed his wand at himself and said, “Avada Kedavra!”  
Draco started running. He didn’t know where, he just knew he had to get away from himself. His lungs were burning and how the hell had he gotten into the Malfoy Manor? He slowed, padding down the dark, familiar halls. He came across the dining room, only to find there was a Death Eater meeting taking place that very moment. Draco cautiously walked in, head bowed, unsure of what was happening.  
“Ah, I see you have decided to join us, Draco. Just in time, too. You failed your task. Do you not remember the consequences?” The Dark Lord hissed, “Lucius. Narcissa. Come here.” Draco’s parents walked up to Voldemort, heads bowed. The Dark Lord stood, and said, “Avada Kedavra!” Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy crumpled to the floor, eyes wide and glassy. They were dead. Draco screamed. He screamed until he could no longer make a sound. Then he ran. Ran back to The Other Him, to where he had killed the four people he hated, but didn’t want to die.   
When his legs collapsed beneath him, he took in his surroundings. He was not in the Manor, and it was not dark. There were little lights dancing around him, and he was in soft grass. The lights formed a pillow under his head, and he fell into the most restful sleep he’d had in the past two years.

*********************************Hermione POV******************************************

Hermione watched as Malfoy ran from the carbon copy of himself. She didn’t want to follow him, but something told her it was important. So she ran until Malfoy stopped in front of a large, dark mansion. They walked in, but Malfoy didn’t seem to notice she was there. She watched him walk into what looked like a dining hall, she witnessed his parents die at Voldemort’s hand. She felt...pity...for him. He was screaming his heart out over his parents’ bodies, and she couldn’t help it. She wanted to comfort him. She moved towards him, reached out a hand, but he bolted up and started running again. Merlin, Malfoy, can’t you make anything easy? She ran after him, but only for a short while. He was panting as if he had just tried to climb Everest in a day. He fell to his knees in the...grass? Since when were they running through grass? And trees? When did the trees get there? She didn’t have time to ponder any of this as tiny golden lights came out of the ground to form a pillow for the exhausted boy’s head, and as she watched, she heard a lilting tune being swept in by the breeze as the grass moved towards her eyes at a less-than-alarming speed:

Evening breeze, spirit song,   
Come to me when day is gone  
Mother Earth awakens me  
With the heartbeat of the sea

Evening breeze, spirit song  
Come to me when day is gone  
Mother Earth awakens me  
With the heartbeat of the sea...


	2. Safe Haven

Disclaimer - Roses are red, violets are blue, I don’t own, you don’t sue  
Chapter 2 - Safe Haven

**********************************Draco POV*********************************************

When Draco woke, he was greeted by little golden lights that were floating by the trees. He propped himself up on his elbows and surveyed his surroundings. There were trees circled almost perfectly around a field of short green grass, which, he noticed, was surprisingly soft. There were paths leading out between the trees, and they got considerably darker once the small lights disappeared. The shadows seemed to curl around the lights, as if they were being held back, but were trying their hardest to get in. The events of the previous day suddenly came back to him. The copy of himself who killed all those people, his parents’ deaths. Draco curled into a tight ball, shaking as his emotions crashed to the surface. Tears started slowly rolling down his face, faster and faster so that they were coming out of his closed eyes. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he flinched away violently.  
“I-I’m sorry. I was trying to help. Draco?” It was Granger. But she had just called him...Draco, not Malfoy.  
“What do you want, Granger?”  
“I just want to help you. I can tell what happened yesterday hurt.”  
“You saw that? Why didn’t you stop it?”  
“I couldn’t, ok? I couldn’t, and I’m sorry.”  
“Don’t be. I don’t want pity from a filthy Mudblood.”  
“Fine. If you’re going to act like that, so be it. At least I will try to be civil. If you want to play chinese checkers, I’ll be over there, trying to figure out how we got here.”  
“Chinese checkers?”  
“Yes, Malfoy, chinese checkers. The Room thought we needed it, apparently.”  
Draco didn’t reply to that. He just sat in his ball, reigning in his emotions. There was this little twinge in his stomach. It was a foreign feeling, and he couldn’t quite place it. It was almost like he was...no, he couldn’t ever feel that for a lowly Mudblood. But that little thing in his stomach wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard he tried. So Draco groaned and got up.  
“Granger! How do you play this...chinese checkers game? I’m terribly bored, and you’re the only option I have left beside sitting here staring at nothing.”  
“Come over here then, Malfoy. I’m obviously not going to you.”  
“Whatever, Mudblood. I’m getting up. But only so I can best you at yet another thing.”  
“Shut it, Malfoy. Just get your arse over here.”  
Draco glared at her, but walked over anyways. He was bored, after all.  
“Tell me how to play, Granger.” He watched her roll her eyes and begin to explain the game. It seemed fairly easy enough. He opted to be the green pieces, and Granger was red. They played in silence, until Granger was two moves away from winning. Draco knew she had to be cheating. No one could beat him. He moved a piece to block one of hers. She moved a piece he hadn’t seen, and was now one move from winning the game. Draco flipped the board over and stalked away, fuming silently.  
“Hey! What was that for? Malfoy! Answer me!” Granger shouted.  
“I don’t answer to or lose to stupid, filthy Mudbloods. Get it in your head Granger.”  
He heard the Mudblood stomping away, out of the little ring of lights. Fine, go get lost and die. I don’t care. That’s when the screaming started.

*********************************Hermione POV**********************************************  
Her head hurt where a couple of pieces had whacked her in the face when that insufferable git flipped the game over. She didn’t know why he was so fine. It had been about twenty minutes of silence, which meant no insults. So she yelled after him, “Hey! What was that for? Malfoy! Answer me!” He just replied, “I don’t answer to or lose to stupid, filthy Mudbloods. Get it in your head Granger.”  
She felt tears welling in her eyes. She couldn’t let him see that. So she ran out of their little meadow and into the darkness of the forest.  
Hermione walked aimlessly, tears restricting her vision. She wouldn’t have been able to see, anyways, it was so dark. Things were brushing against her legs, and every time she would jump. A sharp pain shot up her leg, and she shrieked. It happened again, and again. The things felt like, like snakes! She screamed as the writhed around her and bit at her legs. She fell, and screamed as more snakes swarmed around her, biting at her arms now, too. One lunged at her neck and she screamed, “Draco!” But the snake never bit. Then she saw a tall figure moving smoothly through the snakes. He lifted her up and carried her out of the darkness.  
Hermione woke to a very, very bright sun. She looked at her arms, then her legs. There were ne bite marks anywhere. She thanked the Room because that would’ve been terrible to clean. Remembering the snakes, she shuddered. She remembered them writhing around her, biting her, and-and how she had screamed for Malfoy. How he had saved her. She needed to find him.  
“Malfoy! Where are you?” She sat there for what seemed like forever, and she started to get worried.  
“Draco?”  
“Were you worried about me, Granger? Because that’s certainly how it sounded.  
“No, of course not you git. I just have a question for you. Why did you save me?” Something flashed across his face. It was gone so fast she couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something. So, the Slytherin Prince was really human.  
“I was getting tired of hearing your pathetic screams. Though it was quite heart-warming to know that you wanted your last words to be my name. How thoughtful of you, Mudblood.”  
She had spoken too soon.  
“You stupid, self-centered, insufferable, horrible git! We are the only people in this place. Actually, I am the only person in this place. You’re just a cold,lonely, spoiled brat who only wants to be a murderous Death Eater like his father!”  
Malfoy’s face hardened. His grey eyes turned to stone, and he looked even more pale than usual. He spat out, “I. Am. Not. A. Murderer.” With that, he stalked away, into the darkness of the forest.  
The strange song echoed in her ears again. But it was different, this time.

 

Evening breeze, spirit song,  
Come to me when day is gone  
Mother Earth make me free  
With the heartbeat of the sea

Evening breeze, spirit song  
Come to me when day is gone  
Mother Earth make me free  
With the heartbeat of the sea...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!

**Author's Note:**

> There's a reason for everything in this story, songs included. Ask no questions, I'll tell you no lies. (Weasley Twins)


End file.
